


Up the mountain

by Sternenstaub



Category: Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types
Genre: Bigotry, Inspired by Fanfiction, No Beta, People are mean to witchers, Witchers Have Feelings (The Witcher), warlord au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 16:00:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,300
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26171602
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sternenstaub/pseuds/Sternenstaub
Summary: Saarea, a witcher who mostly stays away from humans, hears about Warlord Geralt and decides to investigate.
Comments: 16
Kudos: 213
Collections: Inspired by inexplicific Accidental Warlord AU





	Up the mountain

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [With a Conquering Air](https://archiveofourown.org/works/23273713) by [inexplicifics](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inexplicifics/pseuds/inexplicifics). 



Everybody knew witchers were monsters without emotions. Everybody knew they only fought for coin and cared about little else. Everybody knew witchers were men, women too weak to survive their mutations. Just as everybody knew that devils abducted fair maidens at night, when the windows were open. 

Saarea scanned the inn, it had been some time since she had been in a village, even one as small as this one. Making sure her eyes stayed in the shadows and her hood on her head, she dipped her chin at the barkeep and soon nursed a too warm ale in the corner of the room. Letting the noise and smells of people wash over her.  
As long as nobody looked too closely, they wouldn't see her eyes shining an unnatural red, scleras black, they wouldn't notice her pack being too long to contain anything other than swords and that two hilts looked out of it instead of one. Her build was small enough to get assumed a burly woman, instead of anything unnatural. The mutations had never shown very prominently on her, besides her face. 

She sat in a dark corner and tried to relax. People could be so loud. A bard played a song about witchers and she looked up startled. The song wasn't a warning or a mocking, it sounded hopeful, talked about the safety witchers brought with them and of kaer morhen, where the army of the white wolf sat. A shiver went down her spine, she had heard of the place, had heard of the summon many years ago, when all the schools had been invited to the elusive wolf school to discuss an important matter. But she had been on her way back to the path, after a long winter at the bear keep, and not bothered to stay. She hadn't returned for several years. How could things have changed this much in such a short time? This wasn't the first time she'd been "hibernating" in the wild, living on her own, away from civilization, hunting and gathering and meeting only other nomadic people, rarely humans. The world had always stayed the same, she was old enough to know it always would. But it seemed, the world still could surprise even someone as old as her. 

The bard didn't get to finish the song, a waiter spoke to him and pointed at a notice next to the door, when the performer blanched and started something new, something bawdy about fishmongers and daughters. At least that part about people hadn't changed. Having soaked in enough noise and ale for an evening, Saarea left some coins on the table, the last few she had, and went out into the night. Looking at the curious note on the wall while she slipped into the night. It proclaimed in big letters, "Witchers and those who support the unnatural reign of the self claimed “White Wolf” are to be reported to the nearest authorities.” Things hadn't changed at all it seemed. She sighed and left. Nobody watched her go. 

But Saarea´s curiosity was piqued. Why were people writing hopeful songs about witchers and at the same time whole cities forbid "mutants" from entering them. The next time, several weeks later, humans were so very loud, she ventured out into civilization, listened to the gossip, the whispers about dozens of witchers killing anyone who didn't listen to them. "... heard they beheaded him in front of the city gates, just like some creature." one spat out with revulsion, reveling in the fear of her listener.  
The whispers talked about witchers coming down on anyone who mistreated non humans, that they scaled a wall and killed a king to end a siege. And it all sounds fantastic, made up, unbelievable. And it explained why so many kingdoms refused to let witchers enter by now. Afraid to be the next target. 

Saarea couldn't help but be drawn north, to the blue mountains, towards Kaer Morhen. 

Heading north, she had to stop and get some travel rations, the ever faithful note warning of witchers visible at every stall. Saarea could hear the people behind her talk about the mutants that defied men and attacked a king like some common monster. "Just because he tried to make the city a better place. My cousin lives there and says the City was perfectly fine without all that rubbish trying to beg in the streets. But no, there some mutants think they know better. I can't believe they're trying to…. " the rest wasn't audible anymore, the merchant in front of her packing up her things with crackling vigor.  
"Aye laddie, here ya go. Want to travel all alone? Even a big woman like you shouldn't go out there alone. Heard there's all kinds of things in those woods." the merchant said with a kind smile. Saarea grit her teeth, bending her head to hear more about the witchers, feeling her hood slip in the wind for a moment. The merchant gasped, "You're one of them!"  
The crowd around her murmured louder, an especially brave young man with a snarl on his face grabbed her hood from behind and pulled it down, almost strangling her in the process. "We don't serve your kind here!" The people stared, until the first one found a stone. "Mutant! Monster! Killer! Abomination!" Saarea grabbed her bags and the crowd dispersed around her, taking a step back, stinking of hate and fear once they clearly saw her eyes, black as the night and red as the blood she spilled for their safety. 

Back in the woods, the bloody scrapes in her face from the stones already healed again, blood on her dark skin the last reminder of what happened and what would a few more scars mean in the face anyway? Saarea decided to go to this fabled land where witchers were not abominations. Or at least had no reason to protect their face from hate. 

The trek was easy in the early autumn and within a few weeks Saarea, used to traveling in the woods, far away from human settlements, reached the blue mountains.  
The gates to Kaer Morhen looked almost the same as so many years ago, when she had visited the last time, long before humans were considered to be monsters as well, to be hunted if they did harm the way only monsters would. A young witcher opened her and for the first time in many years, she didn't hide her eyes. Red slits staring into golden ones. The witcher looked surprised but not afraid. And wasn't that nice for a change?  
"Didn't know we expected anyone to come back today." he murmured, looking around for someone who knew what to do with this witcher without a Medaillon.  
Apparently Saarea looked hungry and she was escorted to the kitchens for now. Having no horse or bags to stow away. The food was plenty and warm and the servants didn´t stare at her. This was very different from the drafty old keep bare of any life she had seen the last time. Many many years ago. Walking from the kitchen to the main hall, she spotted a grey head, deep in conversation with a young man, a human she realized, with brown hair and blue eyes who seemed to thrill with boundless energy. Another reaction she did not see often, old witchers and young men, laughing together. Saarea decided to forgo any introductions and give time the meaning it had, none. “Vesemir! You still owe me money. Don't think a century absolves you of paying your debt!” she laughed, seeing his eyes widen as she approached. The young man still didn't flinch, watching her with a curious expression and maybe, just maybe, no one else would while she was here.

**Author's Note:**

> I loved inexplicifics accidental warlord AU so much and it felt like the perfect place for my OC Saarea, who did not start in the witcher universe, to play in. I hope I do her, the AU and witcher overall justice. Please tell me if the rating is wrong or any tags are missing.


End file.
